1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to portable electronic devices, and more particularly to a multifunctional portable electronic device, which provides a user with not only voice communications, but also image communications or picture-taking functions.
2. Prior Art
Multifunctional portable personal communication devices, such as mobile phones with video cameras and mobile phones with still cameras, are very popular in current days, since they provide users not only with voice communications, but also image communications, or at least provide the users with picture-taking functions.
However, these existing multifunctional portable personal communication devices, for example, the mobile phones with cameras, have a number of problems. Referring to FIG. 4, a mobile phone 2 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,915 comprises a display 20 and an enclosure 22. The display 20 is connected with the enclosure 22 by a pivot 24 so that the display 20 can rotate with respect to the enclosure 22. The pivot 24 comprises a bushing 26, which contains a miniature video camera 28. The user can preview pictures of him/herself and shown on the display 20 when taking pictures. However, a user can not preview pictures when taking pictures of other objects other than himself, since the video camera 28 and the display 20 point in the same direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,950 discloses a personal communication device, which provides the user with both voice communications and a picture-taking functions. Referring to FIG. 5, the communication device 1 comprises a display 10, a camera 12, a clip-on enclosure 14, and an adjustment thumbwheel 16 connected to the clip-on enclosure 14. The clip-on enclosure 14 cooperates with the thumbwheel 16, allowing the camera 12 to be adjusted to various working positions by rotating the thumbwheel 16. When the user wants to take pictures of himself/herself, images can be previewed through the display 10, since the display 10 and the camera are normally positioned in the same plane. When the user wants to photograph other objects, the camera 12 can be adjusted by the thumbwheel 16 to point away from a top end of the communication device 1 preview images shown on the display 10 when photographing objects other than the user. However, the electrical connection between the camera 12 and the communication device 1 is vulnerable to disconnection since the camera 12 has to be frequently adjusted from one position to another. In addition, the design of the communication device 1 is quite complicated and the manufacturing cost is high.
WO 01/31893A1 patent application discloses a mobile phone having both a first camera and a second camera. The second camera has a capturing direction essentially different from the capturing direction of the first camera. This invention also solves the problems of previewing either the user or objects other than the user. However, this mobile phone is also too complicated and has a very high manufacturing cost, since it has two cameras.